Tabloid 11

Sunday, 16 October 2016

“There has been a lot of prejudice in the #bitcoin space. It takes a lot to uncover the true potential in the midst of misconceptions and misdirections.”

I understand that a good majority need not understand how #bitcoin technically function, as not many understood how a personal computer technically function. But it is very essential for everyone to perceive its capabilities and the implications or applications that it sets to bring to this world.

#bitcoin has just started what could be a very fundamental restructuring to how the world works.

“It brings a very drastic paradigm shift that demands revolutionary transformation at the grassroots rather than evolutionary upgradation of apex corporate knowledge hubs.”The initial advent of #bitcoin (the crypto-currency) is set to unravel a humongous cascading effect on to different technological, financial, scientific, legal and social layers.Taking a distant standpoint on price predictions,from a non-technical perspective, the following seven core aspects could be attributed as the unique selling points that #bitcoin offers in its current form:

Business model for Open Source

Micropayments

Banking the unbanked

Distributed + decentralized economy

Low cost remittances

Programmable money

Smart Contracts

While there exists a lot other features which need serious focus, let me leave some food for a future argument.

I would like to discuss more on these seven core aspects which can form a foundational layer to a bright future ahead.

Business model for Open Source

#bitcoin has just proved the market with a successful business model on top of an open source contribution which has been seen replicated by numerous projects around the world and kickstarted a new movement of decentralising economy which are popularly termed as ICOs (Initial Coin Offering).

It has just brought a pivotal shift of financial power and freedom to the open source contributors. Anyone from anywhere in the world can put upright the ideology and project implementation strategies alongside the token sale to procure funding required for the project.

We are near to a future with dominance of crowdfunded companies running completely out of the financial frameworks of today leapfrogging over the paperwork and restrictions of floating a global public corporation.

Micropayments

#bitcoin network supports micropayments out of the box. Additionally, the network expresses the capability to accommodate further technology layers which can scale the network to handle nano-payments.

What micro or nano payments can bring to the financial world is yet unfathomable. This could be a long yearning answer to the online ad-blocking user communities or just a beginning of a new emerging insurance market for unsecured loans at a time scale of sub-seconds.

We will be seeing services offered in a more fluid architecture, with lease periods squeezed down to minutes if not seconds and currency becomes the next medium of monetary expression rather than just a proof of value system in the hands of the authoritarians.

Banking the unbanked

The current business systems built on top of trust and profitability are not practically scalable any further to provide services to the underprivileged. There exists different dimensions of limitations ranging from establishment of physical infrastructure to political frictions among different legal environments discouraging market competition and driving the costs up.

Also there is a significant risk weaved into these corporate structures which could result in a massive collapse of the global financial system running the whole economy into darkness at some point of time, if not now.

#bitcoin just proposes a visionary alternative to the current financial system which hold the capacity to accommodate the current systems as a subset alongside providing opportunity to onboard the unbanked.

With more capable individuals plugged into the global economy, there will be an accelerated contribution to the development of the world. Connected to the secure global financial platform, there is a parity in final privilege resulting in self-esteem and motivation.

Distributed + decentralized economy

Probably the most important aspect to understand and focus upon.

#Blockchain, the fancy buzzword often in the media represents a distributed and decentral record keeping technique with categorical security provided as per the choice of consensus mechanisms between these distributed nodes in the network.

Decentral architecture arranging the intensive proof-of-work contributed to #bitcoin empowers the network with practical immutability that has just raised the bar for digital reliability which opens up the possibility of synthetic trust constructed using mathematical algorithms.

Low cost remittances

While we already have professional remittance facilitators worldwide, there is a certain threshold of eligibility and significant cost to avail such services due to the broken corporate relationships between different legal environments as discussed earlier.

#bitcoin introduces first practical implementation of the concept of a global currency. Which not only lubricates the flow of remittances, but also encourage cross-border trade and commerce irrespective of the legal authority. This is a very crucial step towards the ideal globalisation and liberalisation of the economy.

Programmable money

The definition of ‘money’ tends to fade away further when it loses the rigidity.

When the code itself is capable of holding and transacting in the native currency rather than an abstracted layer on top, it unfolds a whole new age of machine autonomy where currency becomes a common language between the human and machine.

This paves way for a machine-payable web which would result in a more machine demanding ecosystem rather than a human demanding one putting humans out of many service houses due to a greater inclusion or machine brotherhood. There would be no wonder if you find that an autonomous service tier drone is one of the board members to the company you work for in near future. That just introduces the flavour of the third web - the machine payable web accompanied by advancements in AI techniques.

Smart Contracts

Probably the most talked upon or emphasised zone for capital investments in the fintech industry.

The native #bitcoin protocol offers a limited but powerful scope for designing complex and automated transaction contracts which behave as per the prior agreement of the concern parties in a completely autonomous fashion pulling down the need for an entrusted third party providers who have been handling these transaction contracts in the current systems.

More sophisticated smart contracts designed by combination with a variety of transactional contracts can result in completely autonomous corporations with network acting as the board that take truly democratic decisions. Soon we could witness the emergence of the DAOs (Decentralised Autonomous Organisations) contributing to different industrial sectors pushing the decision powers to the edges of the network.

These arguments clearly emphasize the foundational importance of the #bitcoin network and protocol together with the incentive token system to the future of the technological era that would encompass all the major industries in the coming decade.

Friday, 28 June 2013

As per MPD-2001, “a Zonal Development Plan means a plan for a Zone (Division) of the Union Territory of Delhi. The Zonal Plan (Divisional Plan) details out the policy of the Master Plan and acts as a link between the layout and the Master Plan. The development schemes/layout plans indicating use premises should conform to the Master Plan/Zonal (Divisional) Plan.”

Scope of this article is answering questions like:

Where zonal development plans originate from?

What is a zonal development plan?

Why a zonal level development plan is required?

Legality of ZDP.

Indian Master plan approach was fundamentally guided by the British Town Planning legislations. And further integrating the western concept of 'zoning' into the Master planning lead to the preparation of new lower hierarchy development plans called 'Zonal development plan' handling more comprehensive and more focused objectives derived from the Master plan.

Zonal development plans are the next level hierarchical policy plans after the Master plans which detail out the broad objectives of the Master plan at comparatively smaller regions while incorporating the guidelines and proposals by the Master plan without deviating far from the primary goal of development set by Master plan. Unlike Master plans here these zonal plans are prepared for shorter terms with more focus on detailing.

As the city is in its initial stage of growth there is urban agglomeration taking place into the city which usually derived due to one or a few unique characteristics spreading almost homogeneous throughout the city. But as the city keeps growing bigger, there are different new characteristics brushed without the prior knowledge on different parts of the city holding huge population. This arises new problems with solutions generally out of the scope of the single character oriented Master plans which treats the whole city equal and develops the regulations based on the common or prominent character of the city with major aspects in detail. Also it is impossible to advocate these changes into the Master plan due to its long term visionary approach.

At this point the Authorities have come up with such inspiring solution of preparation of separate development plans for different smaller regions called zones which are divided based on the broad prevailing character of the area. Now, having an opportunity of independent planning for each zone, these zonal development plans put their focus on those sub objectives developed according to the uniqueness of the zones.

Coming to the question of legality of the zonal development plans, though both zonal plans and master plans are approved and authorised equally by the State Governments, any changes or amendments are directed only towards the statutary master plan which reflects those changes onto the lower hierarchy plans further. Most development authorities prefer the development of these zonal plans simultaneously with the preparation of the Master plans to provide immediate aid as tool to the Master plan implementation at ground level.

Publication by Physical Planning department at School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi - “Proceedings of Panel discussion on Local Area Plan (case study – ward 144) and Housing provisions in the context of DDA housing scheme 2010”. [http://spa.ac.in/Proceedings-edited-27-1-11.doc]

Sunday, 30 September 2012

What is Bio-diversity? How is it
related to us human beings and climate change? What is going on at convention of biological
diversity?

To begin with, a small comic strip by promotion committee of CoP-10 held at Nagoya, Aichi, Japan 18-29 October 2010. Download

Biodiversity:

Biodiversity is the variety and differences among living organisms from all sources, including terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are a part. This includes genetic diversity within and between species and of ecosystems. Thus, in essence, biodiversity represents all life. India is one of the mega biodiversity centers in the world and has two of the world's 18 ‘biodiversity hot spots' located in the Western Ghats and in the Eastern Himalayas. The forest cover in these areas is very dense and diverse and of pristine beauty, and incredible biodiversity.

About Convention on Biological Diversity

Introduction:

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
entered into force on 29 December 1993. It has 3 main objectives:

The conservation of
biological diversity

The sustainable use
of the components of biological diversity

The fair and
equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic
resources

History:

The Earth's biological resources are vital to
humanity's economic and social development. As a result, there is a growing
recognition that biological diversity is a global asset of tremendous value to
present and future generations. At the same time, the threat to species and
ecosystems has never been so great as it is today. Species extinction caused by
human activities continues at an alarming rate.

In response, the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) convened the Ad Hoc Working Group of Experts on Biological
Diversity in November 1988 to explore the need for an. international convention
on biological diversity. Soon after, in May 1989, it established the Ad Hoc
Working Group of Technical and Legal Experts to prepare an international legal
instrument for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity.
The experts were to take into account "the need to share costs and
benefits between developed and developing countries" as well as "ways
and means to support innovation by local people".

By February 1991, the Ad Hoc Working Group had
become known as the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee. Its work
culminated on 22 May 1992 with the Nairobi Conference for the Adoption of the
Agreed Text of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

The Convention was opened for signature on 5 June
1992 at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (the Rio
"Earth Summit"). It remained open for signature until 4 June 1993, by
which time it had received 168 signatures. The Convention entered into force on
29 December 1993, which was 90 days after the 30th ratification. The first
session of the Conference of the Parties was scheduled for 28 November – 9
December 1994 in the Bahamas.

The Convention on Biological
Diversity was inspired by the world community's growing commitment to
sustainable development. It represents a dramatic step forward in the
conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components,
and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of genetic
resources.

Tuesday, 25 September 2012

A domain name is a Web address, such as godaddy.com, that is linked to an IP address (which represents a physical point on the Internet). When someone types a domain name into a Web browser, the requested Web page displays.

A domain name consists of a top-level and a second-level domain. A top-level domain (TLD) is the part of the domain name located to the right of the dot (godaddy.com). The most common top-level domains are .COM, .NET, and .ORG. Some other popular top-level domains are .BIZ, .INFO, .NAME and .WS. These TLDs have certain guidelines but are, for the most part, available to any registrant, anywhere in the world.

The part of the domain name located to the left of the dot â€” "godaddy," in this case â€” is called the second-level domain (SLD) name. The second-level domain name is the "readable" part of the address and refers to the organization or entity behind the Internet address. Second-level domain names must be registered with an Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)-accredited registrar.

Tuesday, 17 January 2012

Yes it is touchable!! , Touchable is a stretch when talking about Vermeer, but we'd definitely call it interactive. Instead of hiding the 360-degree display under an acrylic or glass dome it uses a parabolic reflector to float a 3D "object" in space and tracks hand motions with an IR sensor or Kinect. It's not unlike RePro3D, but withslightly less bulky hardware. Don't take our word for it though, check out the video after the break.

Saturday, 7 January 2012

There is nothing “paranormal” in the Universe, except our limited understanding of Nature. What we think we “know” on Earth now is just a tiny drop in the Ocean of Knowledge.

In the distant past, people admired things they could not explain and called them “miracles”. Long ago, people were able to see Auras. Advanced spiritual people such as Buddha, Christ and their immediate students were painted with golden haloes around their heads, because some artists could actually see Auras. In Australia remote West Kimberleys you can find prehistoric cave paintings, many thousands of years old, depicting people with golden haloes. Nature gave us ALL we need to see Auras. All is required is the knowledge how to use your senses together with your conscious effort. If you decide not to try, you will NEVER see the Aura. On the other hand, when you SEE something for yourself, no longer will you need to rely on believing someone. You will KNOW. And you can use your knowledge to learn more.

Saturday, 17 December 2011

The days of flat tires and spares are numbered. Sure, self-inflating tires are all well and good, but don't protect from the darn puncture itself. Similar to Michelin's tweels, Bridgestone has cooked up some air-free concept tires that use a tough but flexible thermoplastic structure that behaves like a normal tire with nary any horizontal force produced. Each wheel is able to support around 150kg, although on a typical electric mobility scooter the load is more likely to approach 50kg. Bridgestone is looking to show off those curved, hypnotic spokes on the retail model, but is still researching how to protect against objects getting lodged inside. Roll over the break to see those spokes in action and imagine a future without puncture repair kits.

A team from the MIT media lab has created a camera with a "shutter speed" of one trillion exposures per second -- enabling it to record light itself traveling from one point to another. Using a heavily modified Streak Tube (which is normally used to intensify photons into electron streams), the team could snap a single image of a laser as it passed through a soda bottle. In order to create the slow-motion film in the video we've got after the break, the team had to replicate the experiment hundreds of times. The stop-motion footage shows how light bounces through the bottle, collecting inside the opaque cap before dispersing. The revolutionary snapper may have a fast shutter but the long time it takes to process the images have earned it the nickname of the "the world's slowest fastest camera."

In Which Annie Gives it Those Ones is a 1989 Indian TV film. Screenplay by Arundhati Roy (who also acts in the film), directed by Pradip Krishen, and starring Arjun Raina as the title character, along with Roshan Seth and Shahrukh Khan. This film was the recipient of two National Awards in 1989.

Wednesday, 23 November 2011

London: Imagine reading emails and text messages on your contact lenses which are linked to internet. It may sound a bit utopian, but scientists claim that your imagination could soon turn into a reality. In fact, the futuristic
technology has taken a step nearer, thanks to an international team which claims to have developed a prototype lens that could potentially provide the wearer with hands-free information updates.

The scientists from Washington University in the US and Aalto University in Finland have constructed a computerized contact lens and demonstrated its safety by testing it on live eyes, and there were no signs of adverse side effects.

At the moment, the contact lens device contains only a single pixel, but the team sees this as a “proof-of-concept” for producing lenses with multiple pixels which, in their hundreds, could be used to display short emails and text messages right before one’s eyes.

The scientists said the device could overlay computergenerated visual information on to the real world and be of use in gaming devices and navigation systems.
It could also be linked to the user’s body to provide upto-date information on glucose levels, which could prove medically important.

One major problem to overcome was the fact that the human eye, with its minimum focal distance of several centimetres, cannot resolve objects on a contact lens.

Any information projected on to the lens would probably appear blurry.

To combat this, the scientists incorporated a set of Fresnel lenses into the device; these are much thinner and flatter than conventional bulky lenses, and were used to focus the projected image on to the retina.

Scientists at Washington University are a step closer to bringing us all some sweet information displaying contact lenses. The team has been successfully testing prototype lenses on rabbits -- though there are some major caveats here. First, due to limits of circuitry, they can only display a single light-emitting diode at a time. Also, the scientists have yet to figure out a workable energy source -- at present, they need to be within centimeters of a wireless battery. The researchers have big plans, however, including the display of holographic images -- and, no doubt, information about which targets to destroy.

Sunday, 20 November 2011

Story:The director has done a good job by starting the film with the arrival of Rama and Sita to Ayodhya after vanquishing Ravan in Lanka. Rama is now the king of Ayodhya. Under his rule the people are happy and prosperous. Just when everything seems to be going fine, a comment by a washer man makes Rama to send Sita away into the forest. From here the real story of Sri Rama Rajyam begins. Sita is given shelter by Sage Valmiki. He keeps her identity a secret and looks after her as his own daughter. Sita gives birth to Lava and Kusha. Valmiki imparts knowledge to them and also teaches them how to use weapons (Artha Vidya). They also study Ramayana and Valmiki asks them to preach the story across the length and breadth of Ayodhya. At this juncture, Rama plans to conduct Ashwamedha Yagnam for the welfare of the people. What happens next should be seen on-screen.

Analysis:Sri Rama Rajyam is a feel good film that showcases our ancient culture, heritage and values. The way Bapu managed to make the film into a visual and musical delight is extraordinary. Sri Rama Rajyam has come at a right time and it is hoped that many such films will follow.

Verdict:Sri Rama Rajyam has many positive things and it is a film that can give you an enriching experience while entertaining you in good measure. We must thank Bapu, Yelamnchali Sai Baba, Mullapudi, Ilayaraja, Balakrishna, ANR and Nayanatara for giving us a wonderful film.

Thursday, 17 November 2011

Neha Surie, a daughter of Bhavna Surie and Raman D. Surie of New Delhi, was married Saturday afternoon to Neel Bhaskerrao Patel, a son of Vaishali B. Patel and Dr. Bhasker P. Patel of Melbourne, Fla. Pandit Bhipin Bhatt, a Hindu priest, officiated at the East Ridge Country Club in Shrevepor.

The bride, 30, and the bridegroom, 28, met at the Thunderbird School of Global Management, from which each received an M.B.A.

The bride is a consultant in Arlington, Va., for the accounting firm Deloitte & Touche; she advises government agencies on security and privacy concerns related to computer systems. She graduated from Centenary College of Louisiana. Her father is a professor and the head of the department of physical planning at the School of Planning and Architecture in New Delhi. Her mother teaches physical education at the British School there.

Until September, the bridegroom was a program analyst in Tucson with Raytheon, the military and aerospace equipment manufacturing company; he worked on the development of international missile programs. He graduated from the University of Florida. His father is an internist with Melbourne Internal Medical Associates in Malabar, Fla.

Wednesday, 16 November 2011

Have you ever wondered what is the working staff of the world's #5 website www.wikipedia.org ?

You may not believe, but it is 95 and they just have got around only 700 servers and serves all the brains in the world with knowledge. Why did the founder Jimmy Wales create this wonderful website with free access? He could have earned millions by pricing that knowledge. So, it is our responsibility to encourage this kind of service he offers to the world and appreciate the wikimedia team by donating what you can.

If you really like the service of Wikipedia.org, please go on and donate your share to the team working hard there! "Let me Donate!"

Tuesday, 8 November 2011

Chobi cam PRO : is the miniature version of the digital camera, also the worlds smallest full-metal body camera.

As examined in November 2011, the only defect in this miniature camera is the shake when you press the shutter button, this is because of the miniature size of the camera.

Size of the camera is compact enough to fit between the fingers of the V-sign (1.2cm thickness 4.3cmx2.1cmxheight H).

You can capture videos of highest resolution 1280x720, and the quality finish is unique to the analog film cameras. You can shoot decent videos without any special filters with artistic taste.
Also 12 mega-pixel shots can be taken with this miniature DSLR camera.

Lastly, the one big thing about this miature camera is that it only cost you $76 (6000 YEN).
For further details and sample videos shot by the camera go here
(Comment below)

Monday, 7 November 2011

Everyone uses torrents to get their desired files downloaded to their PCs, but only few of them are aware of what is a torrent exactly and the working principles of the torrent. Having a full fledged knowledge about a torrent and its working could make sharing more productive. Sharing is the powerful tool in this modern computer science. The future is going to be only cloud computing.

So for those who need to know the working of the torrents, here is some basic explaination.

Three new futuristic projector designs from the microsoft research team. And this time its handheld trio.

The palm-friendly devices, split up into camera, room and SLAM models, incorporate pico projectors, coaxial IR cameras, inertial measurement units (IMUs) and the company'sKinect (for the latter two only) to project augmented visions onto surrounding surfaces. If you've been honing your shadow puppetry game over the years, that oft-used skill's about to get very useful. The environmentally aware (no, not the Go Green! kind) systems allow for shadow- and touch-based interaction with the CG overlays, offering pinch functionality, icon selection and even painting -- don't worry, it's definitely removable. This neat tech hat trick could one day soon spare you a trip to IKEA, letting you test out potential decorative pieces from the comfort of your home.

I recently bought an induction stove along with my roommates in here, but our major problem is that we were never exposed to cooking clearly.
Most wanted item in our wish list was rice, but none of had an idea of how to cook some rice!
So we found answer to our quest here - this is really really really helpful for those who are new to cooking like us students staying away from home.

Monday, 31 October 2011

So we all know that Steve Jobs' backpacking trip around India, as a 19-year old in search of Neem Karoli Baba and enlightenment, didn't really go off all that well. The 1996 unauthorized biography, iCon by Young & Simon (a book which considerably upset the late Apple co-founder) sums it up thus:

The whole experience in India had been intense and disturbing. It had been entirely different from anything Jobs had expected, anything he had known in booming Silicon Valley. But it had not been the answer. The inner fire wasn't satisfied.

In fact some have gone on to make the suggestion - a rather tenuous one in my opinion - that Jobs' experiences with dirt, lice, dysentery, deprivation, hunger and general despair were responsible for his never taking India seriously as a business opportunity. However, we now finally have official confirmation from Walter Isaacson's official biography (I just got my Kindle edition this morning) titled Steve Jobs, that "experiential prajna, wisdom or cognitive understanding that is intuitively experienced through concentration of the mind" was his greatest learning from India.

Mind you, Jobs was very skeptical of spiritual mumbo-jumbo of the kind dished out to gullible tourists and not very impressed with godmen, whom he mostly thought of as impostors. His real respect seems to be for the common man, as evident from this excerpt:

Years later, sitting in his Palo Alto garden, he reflected on the lasting influence of his trip to India:

"Coming back to America was, for me, much more of a cultural shock than going to India. The people in the Indian countryside don't use their intellect like we do, they use their intuition instead, and their intuition is far more developed than in the rest of the world. Intuition is a very powerful thing, more powerful than intellect, in my opinion. That's had a big impact on my work."

So there you have it. He may have not particularly enjoyed many aspects of his stay here, but he was willing to acknowledge that one of his most admired qualities - the stuff that made him be seen as a genius - had its roots in our very own backyard. But there is a caveat - and I say this only because we have a tendency as a people to gloat over this fantastic aspect of our cultural legacy and use it to justify everything from driving like maniacs to 'voluntary corruption'. Steve Jobs did not say that this was the ONLY way of thinking. The great synthesizer of other people's ideas that he was, Jobs found his own way to combine the philosophies of East and West, as he explains to Isaacson here:

Western rational thought is not an innate human characteristic; it is learned and is the great achievement of Western Civilization. In the villages of India, they never learned it. They learned something else, which is in some ways just as valuable but in other ways is not. That's the power of intuition and experiential wisdom. Coming back after seven months in Indian villages, I saw the craziness of the Western world as well as its capacity for rational thought.

Friday, 28 October 2011

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday deregulated savings bank deposit interest rates, leaving it to the banks to offer whatever they want.

Till now, savings bank accounts fetched 4% per annum. The RBI said each bank will have to offer a uniform interest rate on savings deposits up to Rs 1 lakh, irrespective of the amount in the account within this limit. For savings account deposits over Rs 1 lakh, a bank may provide differential rates of interest, if it so chooses.

However, there should not be any discrimination from customer to customer on interest rates for similar amount of deposit, the RBI ordered — so expect more interest rate slabs to come up based on the size of deposits.

Analysts said banks with less ‘CASA’ or current account-savings account deposits with them will offer more interest rates. By Tuesday evening, Yes Bank, which has only 3% CASA deposits, announced it will offer 6% interest rate on savings accounts to lure retail customers.

Among the big banks, a lot depends on what the State Bank of India does as that will set the tone for the market. “If SBI does not necessarily increase the savings deposit rate then I do not see the savings deposit rate going up across the industry,” said Suresh Ganapathy, head of financial research team at Macquarie Securities.

No cooking, No kitchen is required for you, “Everfresh”Delisious Vegetarian/Non-Vegetarian biryani, rice, fry and curries readymade packets are available with advanced technology which gives you up to *1 year shelf life, without refrigeration.

Friday, 14 October 2011

Beam Fiber which was earlier know as Beam Telecom is a local ISP for Hyderabad & Secundrabad in AP India, has just revamped there broadband plans is now offering an insane speed of 10 Mbps for just Rs 1,000 and they have other competitive plans that offer speed upto 20 Mbps.

Beam has become the fist ISP to offer crazy insane speeds of 10Mbps at affordable pricing of just Rs 1,000 / month mind you this is an unlimited broadband plan but there is an FUP clause of 30 GB in this plan and after crossing the FUP limit you get downgraded to 2 Mbps which according to me is fine, coz at this rate other big National ISP are not even offering around 1 Mbps which is quite shameful and Beam new pricing is a slap on their face.

Tuesday, 11 October 2011

The Telangana Joint Action Committee (T-JAC) chairman M. Kodandaram announced on Tuesday that the three-day rail roko called by his organisation on October 12 to 14 had been deferred. It would now be organised in the Telangana region from October 15 to 17, he told reporters here.

Accordingly, the South Central Railway declared that all train services would run as per their original schedule on October 12, 13 and 14. It announced scrapping of the changes informed on Monday evening in the pattern of train services and also withdrew the travel advisory to the passengers. (taken from http://www.thehindu.com)

Friday, 7 October 2011

The tablet, which costs about as much as a pair of shoes, features a 7-inch touchscreen, 32 GB of storage, 256 MB of RAM, and runs on Android 2.2 Froyo. Aakash comes pre-loaded with a few apps, but it's not an app platform since it can't access the Android Marketplace. The tablet's 2100 mAh battery will last between two to three hours, but Aakash has been extensively tested in hot 118 degree Fahrenheit conditions to replicate summers in northern India.

The Indian government will give away 100,000 free Aakash tablets during its launch period. The first 500 tablets have already been released, but have received mixed reviews. Some complain the tablets are slow, but when a tablet costs $35, you get what you pay for performance-wise.

"Design is not just what it looks like. Design is how it works," said Steve Jobs, the late co-founder and chairman of Apple.

By offering a cheap tablet to its citizens, the Indian government is following in the steps of Jobs and Apple. It was never about the money for Jobs; his wish was to put his technology in everyone's hands, not just those who could afford it. The Indian government may not be close to producing an iPad, and Aakash may not play movies or Angry Birds, but any tablet is better than no tablet for most people.